City of Knoxville Plan to Address Homelessness

Knoxville-Knox-County-Homeless-Coalition

The MISSION of the Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition is to foster collaborative community partnerships in a focused effort that seeks permanent solutions to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness.

The Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition celebrated its 30th anniversary in November 2015!

In 1985, there was a lot of discussion and concern related to the emerging homeless trends that were appearing all over the country. Congress put forth the Homeless Persons Housing and Supportive Services Act of 1985 and during the same year Knoxville’s Mayor Kyle Testerman appointed 25 members to what would be known as the Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition. Original members included the Executive Director of KCDC, the five Executive Directors from the local shelters, the Executive Directors from the mental health centers, the Vice President of St. Mary’s to name a few and he appointed Dr. Roger Nooe to chair the coalition. Dr. Nooe was a social work professor at the time at the University of Tennessee who brought objective oversight to the group. The coalition met once a month at the City/County Building and discussed emerging trends, familiarized themselves with everyone’s programs, developed operating standards for the local shelters in town and in 1986 completed the first homeless study in Knoxville where various agency representatives conducted an interview with individuals who were living on the streets and in the shelters. The KKCHC has been going strong and meeting monthly since 1985. It is now made up of agency representatives who volunteer to attend monthly meetings to coordinate services for individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness in Knoxville. In 2009 we adopted our official mission statement “to foster collaborative community partnerships in a focused effort that seeks permanent solutions to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness.”

Congratulations to our 2017 Officers!

Gabe Cline, Chair

Debbie Taylor-Allen, Co-Chair

Jewell Minich, Secretary

Jered Croom, Treasurer

2017 Board of Directors’ Meeting Schedule

LT Ross Building CAC

2247 Western Ave.

Knoxville, TN 37921

“The mission of the Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition is to foster collaborative community partnerships in a focused effort that seeks permanent solutions

The Knoxville/Knox County Homeless
Coalition (The Coalition) and Knoxville Homeless Management Information System
(KnoxHMIS) will release a study on homelessness on July 5, at 11:00am, with a
press conference at the South Eastern Housing Flenniken Landing, located at 115
Flenniken Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37920.

For the past thirty
years, the Coalition has explored the depth of the experience of homelessness
in our communities. Each study has been an empirical attempt to “put a face” to the experience of
homelessness in our communities. The KnoxHMIS data have been presented in an
annual report for the past five years and provide information on the overall
scope and complexities of homelessness in Knoxville and Knox County.

The Coalition’s study
looks at homelessness by interviewing individuals and families experiencing
homeless at a specific point in time (January
27--29);
whereas, the KnoxHMIS report will include the whole of the calendar year 2015.

Each study offers a
unique perspective on the landscape of homelessness while holding in common
that homelessness impacts not only single men and women, but families with
children as well.

Homelessness remains a persistent social
and public policy issue that warrants community dialogue and effective
solutions.

From January to March 2016 There were :

210 homeless families in Knoxville. 30 of those households were able to obtain housing.

Since 1986, the Knoxville/Knox County Homeless Coalition has
attempted to capture the story of homelessness in Knoxville through a biennial
study. Beyond “capturing the story” the study is meant to incite and/or inform
action to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness in our community. It is a
phenomenal effort requiring a vast amount of resources, volunteers, and hours.
In our last study, we interviewed 236 homeless individuals in various shelters,
day rooms, and homeless camps. Each interview lasted, on average, twenty
minutes, so, in sum, approximately eighty hours of interviews were collected.

We are currently gearing up for the 2015-2016 study and need
your help. We anticipate the need for at least 40 volunteers to help with
interviews. Volunteers need to be mental health professionals, case managers,
or social work graduate students. The study will be held on January 27 through
January 29. We need a bulk of that volunteer support on January 27th
and 28th in the evening (beginning at 5:30 PM). The more volunteers
we have, the better the event.

The Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office (1101
Liberty Street, Knoxville, TN 37919)
will be hosting two interviewer training sessions, one on January 19 and the
other on January 21. Everyone participating in the study must attend one of the
trainings – even if you have participated in a training for one of our previous
studies. Both training sessions begin at 5:00 PM and will end at approximately
6:30 PM.

If you can help, please respond to James Young (jyoung@pdknox.org) letting him know which
training day you can attend.

Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE)

Friday, May 29, 2015 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (EDT)

Poverty is an epidemic in the United States affecting an estimated 46 million Americans. Knox County is no different than the rest of the US. Though we have a thriving community with much wealth and growth, 1 out of 6 in our county lives in poverty.

For those of us who do not fall into the poverty category we most likely have a very difficult time truly understanding what life is like for those who do. The Cost of Poverty Experience (C.O.P.E.), created by Think Tank, Inc., is an event that offers a glimpse into the lives of low-income individuals and families living in the community. It is a snapshot of the obstacles that are faced, the decisions that are made, and the consequences that impact these families every day.

C.O.P.E. represents the lives of REAL families who live in poverty who have graciously given their stories so that people across the country can be exposed to REAL people, REAL situations, and REAL barriers that exist. C.O.P.E. also captures the role that the broader community plays in impacting families living in poverty and how policies and systems help or hinder their progress.

THE COST IS $15. FOR TICKETS GO TO: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/cost-of-poverty-experience-cope-tickets-16749061895

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE COALITION :

PROPOSED BY-LAWS AMENDMENT TO BE VOTED ON AT THE MAY 26TH MEETING

Homeless Coalition/CoC By-Laws Amendment

Proposed April 28, 2015

Section IX

Section 9.4 CoC Planning.

Add the below:

(f) CoC Grantee Monitoring. This CoC will monitor and rank all HUD CoC Funded Projects following 24 CFR 578.7 section (a) (4) and (6) guidance through the development and use of a Ranking and Steering Committee. A performance improvement plan from a grantee agency may be required if significant concerns are identified during a review. The grantee will have a period of one year or one HUD CoC grant-funding cycle, whichever is shorter but not less than six (6) calendar months, from the date the improvement plan was assigned, to show improvement, as determined by the Ranking and Steering Committee. If the performance improvement is deemed unsuccessful, the Ranking and Steering Committee may recommend to the CoC Board of Directors reallocation of all or part of the grantee’s renewal funding for the upcoming CoC grant cycle.

FAMILY HOMELESSNESS IN KNOXVILLE

MARCH 24TH, 2015

Presentation

AT the March KKCH meeting, Gabe Cline provided an overview of the Family

Homelessness survey results completed by the Network Committee last year. The
report

was sent to all CoC members. There were 198 families who were deemed
homeless

during the reported period with 30% of those families

not allowed to
be placed together. KARM is a dorm setting and men cannot be

placed with women.
The current shelter capacity is set for 18

families. Family Promise
accommodates some request; but the agency is not an

emergency shelter. You
cannot access their services by

showing up unexpectedly. These families (54%
equivalent to 200 families) were on

The
KKCHC and KnoxHMIS released a study on homelessness on April 22, 2014 at the Knoxville-Knox Couny CAC LT Ross Building at 10:00AM.

For the past twenty-eight years, the coalition has explored the depth and experience of homelessness in our communities. Each study has been an empirical attempt to "put a face" to the experience of homelessness. The KnoxHMIS data have been presented in an annual report for the past five years and provides information on the scope and complexities of homelessness in Knoxville-Knox County.

The KKCHC study looks at homelessness by interviewing individuals and families experiencing homelessness at a specific point in time (January 29--31 and February 5); whereas, the KnoxHMIS report includes date from the 2013 calendar year.

Each study offers a unique perspective on the landscape of homelessness while holding in common that homelessness impacts not only single men and women, but families as well.

Homelessness remains a persistent social and public policy issue that warrants community dialogue and effective solutions.

KKCHC elects officers from the general membership at our annual December meeting. To elect officers, a nominating committee is formed, nominations are presented to the general membership, and a vote occurs.